COVID RESPONSE

Last week,over 10% of our hospital beds had COVID patients in them. That number is presumably climbing. Hospital doctors are sounding the alarm.

We have had surgeries cancelled. Patients sent to other hospitals. And yesterday, there was potentially a time where no ambulances were available in our community.

I’ve also had numerous local frontline workers reach out to me to say “something needs to be done!”

We also have thousands of kids ineligible to get vaccinated returning to school this week. I’ve heard from many very worried parents.

Finally, NOBODY in our community wants the province to shut down businesses, schools, and events like it did in the past. That would drive many businesses under, and be terrible for the already fragile mental health of many. But the province has said that it will consider regionalized restrictions if hospital capacity warrants them.

The state of our local hospital system should be incredibly worrying to us all.

Action is needed. Or else the province needs to come out with strong EVIDENCE (not platitudes) about why we should have faith in local hospital capacity.

In hopes of better supporting a push for action, I haven’t been too public over the last week. I always try to speak and listen at Council first before I go public with something significant. But today a Council Committee had its first conversation about recent COVID changes. So now, my take:

I understand why municipal colleagues are hesitant to jump in. I am too! We don’t have doctors working for us. And healthcare is a provincial responsibility.

However, our Premier and Health Minister are over three weeks into a “vacation.” I don’t know when it will end. And our Chief Medical Officer of Health isn’t taking questions from the media or municipalities. I’d call it absurd if it wasn’t so brutal.

Provincial legislation says that the role of Council is to provide a “safe and viable community.” We don’t get to ignore this part of our job because provincial leaders are refusing to do their job.

We aren’t a safe community with an overwhelmed hospital. And if hospitalizations continue to increase or a large number of residents experience long COVID, our economic viability is in jeopardy.

The very LEAST Council should be doing is advocating for provincial recommendations to be followed (wash hands, social distance, get vaccinated), and also advocating for Mr. Kenney and Mr. Shandro to come out of hiding to ensure local hospital capacity.

But if the province won’t step up, Council needs to go further than that. I absolutely HATE that we are at this point. But it is time to talk about masking again. At least until our hospital isn’t approaching (in?) crisis, and numbers are down or parents who wish to have their kids vaccinated can get their kids vaccinated.

Today, a Council Committee discussed COVID response. While I wasn’t a voting member of this Committee, I was able to participate in discussion to have my say.

Committee did take some good actions. It endorsed a letter from the Mayor to Minister Shandro regarding hospital staffing shortages. It made a request for the province to send health experts to a Council meeting to answer questions. It also directed Administration to create a public awareness campaign encouraging people to follow provincial recommendations, including getting vaccinated. While I don’t know how huge an impact this campaign will have, I am grateful to see Committee endorsing the idea that COVID is a continued threat and that provincial recommendations should be followed.

I’m happy with the actions Committee did take.

But I’m very disappointed in the actions it failed to take.

I’d like to see us as a Council pushing back on the province not just for staff shortages, but also its complete lack of response to rising COVID hospitalizations.

I also think we should be re-considering whether or not a Temporary Face Covering Bylaw is needed. But Committee decided to not even send this to Council. Procedurally, there is no way for me to get this onto a Council agenda prior to the end of the term. So other members of Council will need to support a Bylaw for it to get to Council for debate.

Without some change happening, I’m very nervous about what the next few weeks and months might look like. I’m worried about potential deaths in our community, residents suffering from long COVID, and continued impacts on people seeking non-COVID medical care.

I’m also worried that if the hospital situation continues to deteriorate, the province will impose restrictions on businesses again. That would be tragic for many of them, and a huge blow to our local economy.

I REALLY hope that I am wrong, and that our current course turns out just fine. But I don’t think we can assume it will be without our community changing some of its behaviour. Until it is clear that our community is out of its current danger, I will be continuing to push for Council to take better leadership on COVID response.

On a personal front, outside of my role as Councillor, I’m doing my part as a community member. I’m vaccinated. I’m sadly saying “no” to some events where I will be close to lots of people. And I’m wearing my mask in many places.

I hope you will do your part too.

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A few last more general thoughts in terms of disagreement:

Some of you will read this and say “you just lost my vote.” And while I’d love to have it: that’s ok. Although Council will touch hundreds of issues over the next 4 years, you are well within your rights to base your vote on this one issue. However, we all agree that COVID is one of the biggest issues facing our community, even if we disagree on what exactly is happening and should be done. When I write about all the smaller issues Council discusses, it would be cowardly and wrong for me to pretend this one does not exist.

Last thought: I know I’m going to get hate mail, nasty phone calls, and maybe yet more threats over this post. That’s not ok, but I knew it was what I was getting into with this job. What really breaks my heart is when this happens to community members.

So no matter what your thoughts: can we just try to be kind? I know we are all tired. Many of us are scared (whether of our health or our rights). Many of us are angry. We’re at our wits end. So I hope we can do our best to take some deep breaths and KINDLY talk about our disagreements.

Even if I can’t convince you that kindness is the decent thing to exhibit, I hope you will at least realize that nobody ever gets convinced of anything by being browbeaten into it. So if you really want to change minds: compassionate, decent conversation is the way to do that.